Neil DeGrasse Tyson Had To Step In To Teach Rapper B.o.B That The Earth Isn’t Flat

Who would have ever thought B.o.B would have something in common with former MySpace queen Tila Tequila? Tila recently outed herself as a flat-earth truther because Ferdinand Magellan’s global odyssey is so 1500s. The “Nothin’ On You” rapper recently joined the club, and he spent the weekend adding to his preexisting collection of tinfoil hat tweets.

Just to be clear about what we’re dealing with here, B.o.B is also a fan of the “jet fuel does not melt steel beams” 9/11 argument (there’s a certain blacksmith who could contribute to this conversation). He also holds strong opinions about the (alleged) moon landing, and he knows all about what’s really going on with aliens and cloning.

1. What is the circumference of the earth?
2. How tall the sky is (distance from the ground, to the outer limits of the atmosphere)?
3. The exact value of the number pi.

Flat earth conspiracy sounds like complete and utter bull…and I honestly believe it is. But you can’t tell the people the Earth is round/spherical and not have an answer to these questions.

I just hate when science pretends to have all of the answers, when the truth is there are more unknown variables than actually known variables, when it comes to explaining the earth, it’s shape, inhabitants, and the atmosphere.

There are parts of the ocean we don’t even have the capacity to dive deep enough to explore yet, but y’all wanna go visit Mars & sh*t…

1. The circumference of the earth at the equator is 24,901.55 miles. But, if you measure the earth through the poles the circumference is a bit shorter – 24,859.82 miles.

2. As the “sky” is a vague term, I will instead focus on the atmosphere of our planet. The troposphere goes from 0-7 miles up, the stratosphere goes from 7 to 31 miles up, the mesosphere goes from 31-50 miles up, the thermosphere goes from 50 to 440 miles up, and the exosphere goes from 440-6200 miles up. So depending on what your definition of “sky” is, it’s about 6200 miles high.

3. Pi is the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. It cannot be written exactly as a decimal because it is a transcendental number; it’s irrational.

And the deepest part of the ocean is the Mariana Trench, which James Cameron visited in 2012. Idiots like you are standing in the way of progress, stop keeping our civilization bound to Earth.

“I just hate when science pretends to have all of the answers, when the truth is there are more unknown variables than actually known variables, when it comes to explaining the earth, it’s shape, inhabitants, and the atmosphere.”

I get what you’re saying but you’re not doing your stance a favor by saying it on an article about a dipshit spewing hot truther takes on Twitter.

If your critical thinking leads you to an entirely erroneous conclusion however one should…reevaluate their methods. Part of critical thinking is effectively choosing the sources you will base your calculations on, yes?

“He clearly researched it. His posts included diagrams from books with explanations and everything.”
I can provide “diagrams from books with explanations and everything” that show vampires and werewolf’s exist…am I a critical thinker too!!??

Critical thinking involves doing research to come to a conclusion. It says nothing about whether you’re conclusion is right or wrong. Most critical thinking is done on opinions, which actually have no right or wrong answer.

1. That is only an estimate drawn from picking a certain point in the atmosphere (either the poles/equator, depending on how you want to measure) and determining the circumference from there. Interestingly, you get two different measurements depending on the one you use, which actually makes no sense if we’re dealing with a round object. How can a ball have two different measurements for circumference?
2. Another estimate based on the same assumptions. There is no way to determine exactly where our atmosphere ends.
3. Pi is a naturally occurring ratio, that no one knows the exact value of. It’s not like it’s a value followed by a repeating decimal, where the decimal place value is infinite. Which means, the value of pi can be determined…it’s just currently unknown.

I’m loving the Insane Clown Posse-level science being posited here. The issue @Built4TheStreets, is we’re not dealing with a ‘ball’. But let’s go back to the concept of the earths shape being referred to as an ‘oblate spheroid’. Is the earth round? Then we call that shape a ‘sphere’. We would call a ball a sphere as well. Is that ball truly spherical? Does it measure the exact same dimension through the center, regardless of where? Then that is a true sphere. If your measurements differ, even slightly, then it is referred to as a ‘spheroid’. Kind of like saying you’re dumb-ish. You’re kinda dumb, but not 100% completely so.

Then, come the part where we consider how, generally, the shape of this spheroid is disformed. If it measures longer at the ‘waist’ and shorter in ‘height’, then that distinction is called oblate. No one that deals with geospatial data ever refers to the earth as a ball or round.

Earth has gone from being a sphere, to an oblong spheroid, and back to being a sphere more times than we can count. The fact is, we don’t know and I’ll spit in the face of anyone who wants to pretend to know the answers.

No one can confirm with absolute certainty whether the decimals in the number pi repeat infinitely, or end. We just assume that they continue ad infinitum. And if you can prove that it continues infinitely…please submit your application for the Nobel prize immediately.

We can not determine the ‘height of the sky’ because we don’t know exactly where our atmosphere ends. The only thing that exists is our best estimate, or where we think the atmosphere ends. Again, if you know exactly where it ends…please submit your application for the Nobel Prize.

Science is a religion all of its own, with people as adamant in the theories and postulates presented by scientists, as people are about Jesus/God/Allah. I’m done.

First and most importantly, science is the practice of the scientific method – testing theories with evidence and refining/changing theories where necessary. Everybody knows they don’t have the answers but they have the best available models.

Secondly, since it is my area of expertise (i.e. maths, not science), there are several proofs of the irrationality of pi e.g. [en.wikipedia.org]
Do I get a Nobel Prize even though it wasn’t my work and it was known over 250 years ago?

Conspiracy theories are the biggest waste of time ever. People are always looking for the “hidden truth behind truths” when most of the time the truth is obvious, just slightly obfuscated by the occasional asshole.

You find me a conspiracy theory you think is true, I’ll tell you why its not and why the truth you’re looking for is in plain sight. Best lies are always the ones that are easiest to keep up.

@Built4TheStreets : I wasn’t aware those were conspiracy theories, when there’s so much documented proof that exists about them. Which is kinda the problem–that shit was allowed to come out because…no one cares. That’s our incredibly sad reality. If it doesn’t affect the general public’s day-to-day, damn near anything can come out and the consequences will be close to nil. That shit with Snowden and the NSA should’ve pissed off anyone who’s ever touched a computer that it should be a key issue in every election going forward, but nope. We still care more about protecting ourselves from 9/11.

B.o.B, duude, you’re seriously embarrassing yourself. Go to the shore and watch a ship sail straight out to sea. After a few hours, depending on the speed of the ship, it will look like it’s sinking. Sailors for hundreds and hundreds of years have known this. It’s called “hull down”. This was really clear back in the tall ship days. You would first see the topsails, then mizzen and finally the hull as the ship approached you. Seriously, this is so embarrassing. You’re making a complete fool of yourself. You and the Republican’s Middle Age’s idiocy. Where did you go to school? They should be reported.

Now i know too much weed = B.O.B
Dude even if the world was flat, look in the sky, why is every other planet and moon and star a circle(ish)
If the planet was flat how do you sail or fly around the world?

So, this crazy shit is fascinating to me and I spent half the afternoon reading about B.O.B. and his Barnes & Noble New Age section David Icke nonsense, and it led me some ramblings from a particularly crazy fuck named Donald Marshall, raving about “human cling centers.” Tried to find more about this Marshall guy and it led me to his Twitter account. Checked out his tweets and saw he retweeted a B.O.B tweet on Dec 3 that said “Donald Marshall for president.” So, I’ve come full circle and now I feel free to close up my laptop for the day and maybe forever.

Google Donald Marshall’s “original letter” if you want to see the obvious source of B.O.B’s loony inspiration.

There are so many different ways to go about debunking such dumbfuckery. But…this guy an international recording artist. How does one get on a plane and not look out and see the curvature of the Earth? It blows my mind.